Khanyi Dhlomo is the founder and CEO of Ndalo Media, a multi-platform media company which seeks to positively impact lives through various content platforms and experiences. Through these platforms, Ndalo Media connects with a high quality audience of approximately four million consumers in 13 African countries.

Dhlomo has over 25 years of experience in the media industry. In the early days of her career, she became an award-winning news and lifestyle television anchor and magazine editor. In 2003, she was named one of the most influential women in South African media and, in the same year, became Head of SA Tourism in Paris, France. Dhlomo went on to obtain an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS), before launching Ndalo Media in 2007.

In 2009, she received the Olay SA Iconic Woman Award in the Media, Arts and Entertainment category. In 2010, she was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Later, she was named one of Forbes magazine’s 20 Most Powerful Women in Africa under 40. In addition, she was named a young African economic leader in the Choiseul 100 Africa rankings, a study independently carried out by the Institut Choiseul which identifies and ranks young African leaders who will play a major role in the continent’s economic development.. In 2016, Khanyi was awarded the prestigious Harvard Business School (HBS) Africa Business Club Leadership Excellence award.

Dhlomo is a proud mother of three children and the wife of an education entrepreneur.

Mr Hubert Mathanzima Mweli is currently the Director-General of the National Department of Basic Education in South Africa. His extensive knowledge, expertise and experience as a seasoned educationalist has seen him rise through the ranks of the education sector. Whilst Head of Education in the North West, the province went from being in the bottom three provinces to the top three in the Grade 12 (Upper Secondary) examination results. His financial management skills also took the province from having a huge budget deficit to an Unqualified Audit Opinion with a certificate of Merit of Excellence for 2008/9 financial year issued by the Auditor General.

His management and leadership expertise is contributing significantly in steering Basic Education in the country towards an upward trajectory in terms of learner performance. He is a hands-on leader who, in two provincial visits to each province in 2017, has engaged with more than 40 000 education leaders in the country, in a bid to motivate and support provinces, districts and schools to improve learning outcomes.

Mr Mweli has a number of qualifications which include a Bachelor of Arts in Education with Honours, a Bachelor of Administration in Industrial Relations with Honours, and a Masters Degree in Development and Management.

Babalwa NgonyamaCEO, Sinayo Securities

Babalwa Ngonyama is the CEO of Sinayo Securities, a woman-owned and managed business. She is a Chartered Accountant with an MBA and an astute leader with highly regarded business acumen. She sits on elite boards such as Aspen, Implats and was appointed as Deputy Chairperson for Brand SA by President Jacob Zuma. Babalwa was the founding chairperson of the African Women Chartered Accountants (AWCA), an organisation focusing on accelerating the development and advancement of women Chartered Accountants; she is currently a member of its Advisory Board. Babalwa participates actively in numerous national forums on economic growth and development.

Babalwa graduated from the University of Transkei. She qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1999 after serving her article of clerkship at PDB Pretorius Donashe in Umtata from 1995 to 1998. Her academic qualifications also include an MBA from Bond University (2002) and Higher Diploma in Banking law from Rau University (2003). In 2008, Babalwa completed the Women in Leadership Programme at Harvard University in Boston.

Cathy SmithManaging Director, Cisco Sub-Saharan Africa

Cathy Smith joined Cisco in April 2015 and leads Cisco’s business operations across Sub-Saharan Africa. In her role, Cathy is responsible for the development and execution of Cisco’s go-to-market sales and digital transformation strategies for the region.

Smith has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry leading diverse teams as well as building strong partner and customer relations. Smith spent 23 years with IBM where she held various leadership roles in IT service delivery, HR and Sales.

Before joining IBM, she worked for several companies in the Insurance Industry as an application developer. She also spent three years in the United Kingdom where she consolidated her international expertise and held a number of executive roles for the European and global markets with a focus on outsourcing services business.

She is a fellow of the African Leadership Initiative (ALI), an organisation set up to develop the next generation of value-based African leaders who are capable of guiding and leading their countries as they struggle to align the demands of globalisation with local visions of a sustainable society. She is a Board Director at Cisco Systems South Africa (Pty) LTD and Cisco Technologies Solutions.

Smith is married and has two daughters. Her passion lies in Leadership Development, particularly as the world transforms to the Digital Era.

Mr Carrim completed his BCom Honours degree in Accounting Sciences in 2009. He began his career at the same university as an academic article trainee lecturer and completed his article traineeship with KPMG and was admitted as a member of the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (SAICA) in 2013. He also holds a Master’s degree in Taxation from U.P.

After completing his articles, Waseem joined KPMG’s department of Professional Practice, where he served as a specialist in public sector accounting and assurance matters, and served on committees and initiatives related to the public sector. He also served on committees relating to social integration, as well as driving transformation initiatives in the Chartered Accounting profession. He held a portfolio of audit clients, which he managed within the public sector space, one of which was the NYDA. He led the turnaround of the finance and supply chain management divisions that culminated in two clean audits and a fundamental reduction in irregular, fruitless
and wasteful expenditure

In 2016, Mr Carrim was named one of the Top 35 under-35 Chartered Accountants by the SAICA.
He is currently the acting CEO of the Agency.

Dr Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, Senior Lecturer at Wits School of Education South AfricaDr Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, PhD. is a South African, American Council of Learned Society–African Humanities Programme Post-Doctoral Fellow: 2016–2017 and Senior Researcher in the Directorate of Monitoring, Evaluation & Advice at the Council on Higher Education in South Africa (CHE).

He holds an MA degree history from the former University of Natal, Durban, in South Africa (1999); and he graduated (on Ford Foundation International Fellowship) with a PhD African History major from Howard University, Washington, D.C. in May 2013.

His research interests and recent publications are in the areas of Higher Education Transformation in Post-1994 South Africa.

Lethabo Motsoaledi is an entrepreneur with a passion for tech and development in Africa. She is the CEO and Co-Founder of Motsoaledi & West (M&W) – An advisory firm of engineers in the business of Disruptive Intelligence. M&W helps businesses fast track innovation through applying the Design Thinking methodology and various industry 4.0 techniques.

In 2017 Lethabo was awarded Mail and Guardians 200 young South Africans award. She was also awarded Inspiring Fifty South Africa’s most Inspiring women in technology award. Lethabo is also an academic who has been awarded various fellowships. She is an Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Fellow as well as a Mandela Rhodes Scholar (Class of 2016).

Mandisa Tshikwatamba
CEO
Small Enterprise Development Agency (Seda)

Prior to her appointment as Seda CEO in August 2016, Mandisa Tshikwatamba has been a Senior Manager in the Public Service for more than 10 years. In her management experience, she has led provincial and national portfolios in Policy Making, Organisational Management, Learning and Development as well as implementation of strategic programmes in the Small Business Development Sector.

As an Executive Manager in her previous and current positions, she has been part of South African delegations that negotiated development support programmes engaging with potential partners within and beyond the South African Boarders. Mandisa holds a BAdmin, BA, Post Grad: Certificate Programme in Finance and Investment Management, Post Graduate Diploma in Marketing Management, Honours in Development Studies and MBA.

McLean Sibanda
CEO
The Innovation Hub

McLean Sibanda is an engineer and patent attorney. Since February 2011, he has been the Chief Executive Officer of The Innovation Hub, the innovation agency of the Gauteng Province responsible inter-alia for a leading African Science Park based in Pretoria. He has extensive experience in intellectual property, entrepreneurship and innovation; having co-founded Sibanda & Zantwiik attorneys. He has a lot of experience working with start-ups from funding and incubation perspectives. He serves as an Expert to the African Union (AU), World Intellectual Property and the Department of Science and Technology on intellectual property and innovation matters.

Stavros Nicolaou
Senior Executive
Aspen Group

Nicolaou is Aspen’s Group Senior Executive, responsible for Strategic Trade. Aspen is a top 20 ranked JSE company and a leading supplier of anaesthetics, anti-thrombotics and high potency products.

Nicolaou has over 27 years’ experience in the South African and international pharmaceutical industry and is a previous winner of the SA Institute of Marketing Management (IMM) Healthcare Marketer of the year award. He was recently inducted as one of the youngest Fellow of the Pharmaceutical Society of South Africa (PSSA), one of the highest honours bestowed by the PSSA.

He has been a speaker at a number of conferences, including the Economist Roundtable, the World Economic Forum (WEF) and recently delivered a lecture on ARV developments at the Raigon Institute, a JV between Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Brodwen Koen
Director & Founder
Koen and Associates Architecture

I started my working career at Masabane Rose Architects and found further growth at numerous Architectural firms, before I joined Stauch Vorster Architects International. It is at this junction in my life where I discovered that God had a greater calling on my life, the entrepreneurial “bug” got me. In the year 2011, I founded Koen and Associates Architecture.

Koen and Associates Architecture is an architectural practice evolving in tandem with the Built environment and South African landscape. Founded with the drive to create sustainable, and innovative architecture of excellence, which aims to enrich the human experience through our Architectural developments.

Michael “Mike” Ntsasa
Group Executive
Independent Media

BA Degree (UFS), Management Advance Programme (MAP), (Wits).

Expertise and Experience

Mr Ntsasa is the Group Executive at Independent Media responsible for the Public Sector. His main responsibility is to provide leadership in driving commercial initiatives across multi-media platforms (print, digital and events). He has over a decade of commercial expertise in the media and has held various positions, making him an experienced all rounder in the information solutions sector. Mr Ntsasa has worked his way from being an Account Manager to General Manager and now Group Executive. He was one of the founders of the Independent Media’s youth-centric platform – The Young Independents. Mr Ntsasa also coordinate media projects for the South Africa Chapter of BRICS Business Council.

Ms. Khanyisile Thandiwe Kweyama served as the Chief Executive Officer for Business Unity SA (BUSA) from 2015 – 2017. Responsible for the interests of businesses in SA, align BUSA programmes with the objectives of the NDP. She Co-chaired working groups on inclusive growth at presidential business working groups and represented business in SA at various forums and platforms – both local and international.

Ms. Kweyama has served on numerous boards, her current board memberships include acting as Chairperson for Brand SA, member of the BRICS Business Council, currently a member of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) Board and the SABC Interim Board Chair, Chairman of Social & Ethics Committee for Telkom Ltd. Appointed to Employment Equity Commission from 2008 to 2012. She is a National Planning Commissioner for the National Planning Commission (NPC) since 2015. Ms. Kweyama was also appointed to the Gauteng Eminent Persons Group in March 2016. Ms Kweyama has been awarded many accolades during her career including the likes of being recognised as one of the world’s top 100 most inspiring women in mining in (2014, 15)